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  • Little Sid: The Tiny Prince Who Became Buddha by Ian Lendler
  • Elizabeth Bush
Lendler, Ian Little Sid: The Tiny Prince Who Became Buddha; illus. by Xanthe Bouma. First Second, 2018 [40p] ISBN 978-1-62672-636-9 $17.99
Reviewed from galleys Ad 5-8 yrs

"Sid was a normal kid like you and me," begins the narrator, whose words run below the picture of an amiable, doe-eyed little guy clad in a tunic, sporting a topknot, [End Page 208] and strolling through a fantasy landscape. Normal, except that he's a prince who gets everything he wants—and a whole lot of stuff he doesn't even want—but not the time and attention of his busy parents. Leaving the palace and its dissatisfactions behind, he goes on a quest for happiness that leads him to Wise Ones whose words are baffling and experiences that help him make sense of their cryptic observations. He arrives back at the palace a changed boy, ready to literally raze his former luxuries and insist that his parents "Be here now," a claim on their attention and also an admonishment to live fully within each moment. In this freewheeling introduction to the life and enlightenment of Siddha¯rtha Gautama, Lendler amps up the humor and drowns out the actual Buddhist philosophy, with comic exaggerations of the unctuous courtiers and clueless royal parents taking center stage. The nods to the "this will pass" predictions of the Wise Ones as Sid experiences moments of both distress and happiness have less impact and misleadingly treat Buddhist parables as biographical. In the illustrations, Disneyesque characters are animation-ready, and in many spreads the pale and gray-infused colors offer such little contrast that details are obscured. A brief endnote on the Buddha provides a bit of context, but readers unfamiliar with "Sid's" story may need to do a little homework to catch the message. EB

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